After backing up Jake Browning for three years at Washington, quarterback K.J. Carta-Samuels, pictured, received his full release in December and will be eligible to play for UCLA immediately as a graduate transfer. (Photo by Otto Greule Jr., Getty Images)

After backing up Jake Browning for three years at Washington, Carta-Samuels received his full release in December and will be eligible to play immediately as a graduate transfer. He is expected to graduate in March.

“UCLA is the right place because, first of all, Chip Kelly is a huge reason why,” Carta-Samuels told CBS Sports. “He’s going to be running an offense that I’d like to be a part of and add to.”

The 6-foot-2, 225-pound Bay Area native played in 25 games for the Huskies with one start, completing 27 of 47 passes for 310 yards, three touchdowns and one interception. He was a U.S. Army All-American out of Bellarmine College Prep in Saratoga, where he was the No. 10 pro-style quarterback prospect in the country for the 2014 class, according to Rivals.com.

Carta-Samuels will compete for the starting quarterback job with returning redshirt freshmen Devon Modster and Matt Lynch, freshman Austin Burton, who redshirted last season, and incoming freshman Dorian Thompson-Robinson, a four-star prospect from Bishop Gorman High who is expected to sign his National Letter of Intent in February.

As Rosen’s backup last year, Modster played in six games and completed 51 of 79 passes with four touchdowns and no interceptions. Another former four-star recruit, the Tesoro High product started for the injured Rosen against Utah and Kansas State and threw for 295 yards and two touchdowns in UCLA’s Cactus Bowl loss to the Wildcats.

Carta-Samuels will face his former team on Oct. 6 when the Bruins host Washington at the Rose Bowl.

Thuc Nhi Nguyen has covered UCLA for the Southern California News Group since 2016. A proud Seattle native, she majored in journalism and mathematics at the University of Washington. She likes graphs, animated GIFs and superheroes.

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